Studying The Blade- The SAM DPS Guide

[XgungraveX]

Kaiten doesn't work with guren cause guren isn't a weaponskill. Use guren on single target if you know there is no AoE coming up soon in the fight.

thxs for the info

[Deithwen]

any point in using hissatsu :guren in a single target rotation? seeing it does 800 potency aslo combined with hissatsu: kaiten for a total 70 kenki use. is it worth it?

Yes you should use Hissatsu Gurren on a single target, BUT you should NOT use it with hissatsu kaiten because it just won't work. Hissatsu kaiten doesn't buff skills, only weapon skills ie GCDs.

Edit : I didn't notice someone answered before, ignore my comment .. ^^'

[Chronons]

Do you have a link to this channel? I've tried looking for it on reddit, but all I get is an error whenever I try to join.

Yes, one of the discord mods posted the link to it back in the old SAM discussion thread but it inevitably got buried.
http://thebalanceffxiv.com/

Any info on stat weights yet?

My understanding via the discord is that Dervy and a team of others are working on it. So far Direct hit and Critical hit seem to be the best options with Direct hit surpassing Crit once you get to a 725 Crit. I believe Skill Speed has been mathed out and deemed sub optimal. All of that is subject to change though, check back with the discord to see the updates.

Does anyone have the 3 Sen Opener? I wanna give that a shot.

Yes, these are both Dervy's openers and they are agreed upon by the theory crafting community over at the discord I linked. The 3 Sen opener is better for burst and the 1 Sen is better for sustained damage. I believe the 1 sen surpasses the 3 at the 1 minute 30 second mark. So 3 sen is better for fights with early phase changes, 1 is better overall. The spreadsheets for these are in the SAM section of the discord pinned in the discussion tab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qCqkgoBkgs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0SaUWg9NSQ

[Tsilyi]

The idea behind this is that you'd have a slashing buffed Higanbana. In the opener you suggest, the first Higanbana does not benefit from the slashing buff. Not saying my opener is better or has more potency. I just want to know why we want to apply the first opener without the slashing buff on the target.

slashing only affects the initial hit of higanbana. if you delay using higan it may not hit the TA window and slashing is the least important of the three buffs for damage purposes.

[Adriosh]

Both 3 sen and 1 sen openers are perfectly viable it all comes down to party comp on which you use, basic rule of thumb at the moment is nin in party do 3 sen drg in party do 1 sen this is all with the purpose of maximizing your potency in buff windows, so as a sam your best best is to learn both 1 sen and 3 sen openers.

[Nominous]

Updated the front page with the various opener videos. Will check out the Discord channel after work, and ask if I can borrow the spreadsheets, so I can remove other spreadsheets from the front page.

Also, I'm going to work on the formatting a little bit. Add sections so people can skip to them a little easier! Stat weights when those come through, as well.

Let me know if there's anything else worth adding to the front page!

[Enjuden]

I don't understand why people are not going for a different opener on fights that last at least a minute and thirty seconds. The opener I usually see floating around is Hakaze>Jinpu>Gekko, apply dot with Hissatsu Kaiten, then do Meikyo Shisui for Midare Setsugekka. Playing optimally, this one seems to do more damage, with a 5-6% improvement on the striking dummy on Susano EX, and enough to clear it below minimum ilvl if lucky enough on direct hit/crit without potions. I do not know when you can throw in potions since I don't use them, but I would imagine it's after Jinpu.

Hakaze > Jinpu > Gekko, then Hissatsu : Kaiten > Higanbana, so you get more DoT damage. Then instead of doing Meikyo Shisui to lead to Midare Setsugekka, I do the following. If no slashing debuff, Yukikaze > Shifu > Kasha, then burn Hagakure and immediately follow it up with Hissatsu : Guren. If Slashing debuff, Replace Yukikaze with Gekko for 60 extra potency. I take down about 5% more on the striking dummy in stone, sky, sea for Susano EX compared to the other openers, and end up outdpsing other Samurai with similar gear following this opener.

Once I get through this queue, which is at 874 right now, I'll throw some numbers from the stone, sky, sea calculator and post them here.

Edit: Saw the openers are different. I might as well check those too since I already said I'd compare a possibly outdated opener that was spread around. 476 in queue

[abzoluut]

slashing only affects the initial hit of higanbana. if you delay using higan it may not hit the TA window and slashing is the least important of the three buffs for damage purposes.

That makes sense. Thanks.

Yes, one of the discord mods posted the link to it back in the old SAM discussion thread but it inevitably got buried.
http://thebalanceffxiv.com/

Great, thank you!

[Enjuden]

After some testing, my opener does beat yours, but not by much. Note that there might still be inaccuracies but it should give some idea as to what to expect. According to this site, http://ffxiv.2digitalgames.de/ , I was able to get 4306.76 DPS after when the dummy died, while having 4173.34 DPS with your opener that you posted. I've tested a few other ones, but I've lost time instead of gained any on Stone, Sky, Sea, so I don't think it would help anyone here, or gain 20 dps from your opener, again with that calculator doing the work, which is not enough of a change to bring up discussion.

Overall, it is around a 3% increase with the highest I could have both of them, if DoT is always up and refreshed with 1 second remaining, and Hissatsu : Guren is used as soon as it is up every time. The rule of thumb for me is that if I can chain 3 Hissatsu Shinten or more within 2 GCDs, it is worth more potency than Kaiten'd Midare Setsugekka

[Nominous]

Mine hovers around 4200-4500 but it always changes based on crits. As an FC member showed me, Midare crits and direct crits can spike you a ridiculous amount. Most of the reason people don't opt for the Gekko opener, from my experience and knowledge, is because someone using Shifu earlier will fit their opener within party buffs a lot easier. It's up to you as to what works based on your party comp, and what you are comfortable with. As I said on the front page, there's definitely options for you, and any one may potentially benefit you more than the last. Same as Hagakure usage!